"Who's On(Line) First?"

"Online" - The Big Idea - September/October 1995
by Bayard Saunders

You cannot hide from the current debate, about the demographics of the online audience, as it rages on in the hallways and boardrooms of corporate America, like an endless loop of Abbot and Costello's famous comedy routine: "Who's on first. What's on second. I don't know is..."

Demographics are the current holy grail of the online environment. As important as "measuring the number of hits" or counting how many files were transferred from your Internet World Wide Web server, of more importance to the creative community is the identity of those people receiving the files. While many companies jockey for position in the war to see who will become the new Nielsen rating service of the interactive world, including Nielsen itself, creative folks have to be more concerned with the "audience" of users for whom they are designing messages. And there are currently very few credible sources for that information.

First, in the public sector, The HERMES Project, a collaboration between the University of Michigan Business School and the GVU Center at Georgia Tech University, has conducted the most valid Internet-user survey to date, and continues to gather, analyze and report information from consumers, as well as from corporations. Second, in the private sector, Forrester Research continues its excellent work providing analysis from a corporate-user business-to-business perspective. Finally, on individual web sites, user surveys, both formal and informal, are proliferating as companies and individuals struggle to paint a trustworthy picture of their audience by building a database of user-responses.

What we do know, if you think statistical averages can accurately define an audience, is that in North America, the average age of a person who will be seeing your message on the Internet is 35, with a significant number of younger students and older, almost-retirees, providing a balance across age groups rather than a bell-curve. This person is most likely college educated, a professional or manager (or a student on their way to that level of employment in the future), with a median household income between $55,000-$70,000. Predominantly, this person is married, and the trend is that they have children. It is significant to note the steady increase in the percentage of females active online, which has been attributed to the increase in content for children.

Equally important to know about are the reasons people have come online initially. Primary motivations for using the Internet World Wide Web continue to be entertainment and information-gathering. Shopping is relatively uncommon as a principal motivation, but preparing for a major purchase, with information-gathering as a preliminary step in the shopping process is very common online.

All other online activities are dwarfed by participation in the "live chat rooms," or "Internet Relay Chat" or "forums" or "newsgroups," where users communicate directly with each other in real-time or almost real-time sessions. This sense of community without formal content, and the appeal of this most interactive of all applications, is causing the major services (Prodigy, CompuServe, America Online) to rethink their content strategy, and should be integral to any creative tactical programs for communications online you may create in the future.

Of note is the desire for quality information on the part of these online consumers. Price is not as important to them as convenience, but they are risk-averse when it comes to giving out personal or financial information, and will value first the security and then the reliability of a company online. This may change over time as encryption software is improved and the news media find other topics to sensationalize.

The most powerful element of online interactivity is the ability to establish rapport with the individuals in your audience through the use of "chat" or "e-mail" or "surveys," and a database. It is important for you to know average characteristics of consumers as we have discussed here, but imagine being able to modify messages based on your knowledge of each individual. By asking each individual about their interests and life-stage, you can build an invaluable prospect or customer database. And by including this aspect in your overall creative design of online marketing, by addressing the demographic of each individual rather than the group, your message can be exponentially more powerful as you move from broadcasting to narrowcasting to direct communications with individuals.

Third base!

Bayard Saunders (http://oeonline.com/~bayard) is Vice President of Media and Interactive Technology at Ross Roy Communications, and President of the Michigan Internet Association. Visit him online or send E-mail to: bayard@oeonline.com

IF YOU ARE ALREADY ONLINE...


FUN WITH USENET NEWSGROUPS:

comp.laser-printer - Discuss laser printer hardware & software
comp.periphs.printers - Discuss all makes of computer printers
comp.publish.prepress - Discuss prepress & service bureau issues
comp.sources.postscript - Discuss postscript language development
comp.sys.hp.hardware - Discuss Hewlett-Packard hardware & peripherals
comp.sys.mac.printing - Discuss Macintosh-based printing, color seps, etc.


FUN WITH THE WORLD WIDE WEB:

Adobe - http://www.adobe.com
American Amateur Publishing Association - http://metro.turnpike.net/aapa
Apple - http://www.apple.com
DocuNetworks International Network of Printers - http://www.docunetworks.com
DRUPA - 3M, Heidelberg Harris, Purup Prepress, etc. - http://www.mmm.com/drupa/drupa.html
Graphics PrePress Forum - http://the-tech.mit.edu/cgi-bin/HyperNews/get/KPT/prepress.html
Hewlett-Packard - http://www.hp.com
Imaging Quest PrePress Resources - http://www.iqinc.com/iqhome.html
PostScript Printing Information - http://edhs1.gsfc.nasa.gov/Info/PSprinting.html
Xerox - http://www.parc.xerox.com

To get on-line call:

• America Online - (800) 827-6364
• CompuServe - (800) 848-8199
• Prodigy - (800) 776-3449
• Delphi - (800) 695-4005
• Netcom - (800) 501-8649
• Greater Detroit Freenet - (810) 691-7077